How much is your disposable income?

[Amee]

How much do you have to spend after bills including food and petrol? We have roughly £1000 a month and we are a family of 4 (dc's are 14 and 10).

£2k and we always seem to be skint, reading this has given me a reality check. I need to cut back and save more!!!

Absolutely nothing. Both working full time in chosen careers which are only paid at this rate in London, both have first class degrees. 1 bed flat in cheap area of London and 18 month old child in childminders 3 days a week. Both work opposite days so no days off together unless on annual leave. If someone could point me to how to get to £2k disposable income and month, I'd be much obliged! :O

At least £1000, not including overtime.

Ah, sorry family of 4 including DD's 2 & 4.

About £1k, save about £200 although will be increasing this soon as need to save hard for Xmas and next years hol. That is for two adults, 1 full time ds and two dsd's that come every weekend.

It soon goes and the last week of the month is always a cheap one.

Between £600 and £1100 depending on whether it's a basic month or we do overtime which is regular. Save £200 pm on a basic month, more on a higher month.

About £ 1,350. Family of 3. Just myself, DH and our 7 year old DS.

We also save £50 monthly.

lisaloulou84 - I would suggest moving out of London.

Interesting thread!

I moved jobs back in June and the difference in my wages still feels very surreal to me. I have been so used to struggling financially as a single parent for the better part of 8 years that my new financial security feels a bit... odd. My rent and bills come to £600 a month, and that's including everything but food. 'Disposable' income after that has all been paid is now £1,100 for 8 yo DD and I I will also be an additional £50 better off a month very soon, as I'll have finished paying off an old student overdraft.

I have always been very strict with myself financially when it comes to my outgoings, and the funny thing is I haven't changed the way I spend, even though I could technically afford to now. But I don't want to, because I actually quite like how we do things and I'd rather save the money or put it towards something else - like a holiday. And I'm continuing to make the savings by doing these kind of things:

• My sim only mobile contract is only £10 a month.
• I don't bother with a TV licence because Netflix at £5.99 a month works out £73.62 cheaper a year. Obviously no fancy Sky package either.
• No car so no petrol/insurance/road tax. Buses are cheap.
• I don't drink or smoke or go on expensive nights out.
• DD doesn't do any classes or activities that aren't included in her discounted leisure membership which is only £11.20 a month.
• We'll do free or inexpensive activities at the weekends such as take the dog for a walk in the woods, go the park, visit the local World Heritage site, go to the library and take advantage of the Kids AM Vue cinema tickets rather than splurge on pricey day trips.
• We've had a few holidays/trips away this year but they have all been of the basic, cheap variety and we have thoroughly enjoyed them.
• I do my weekly shop in Lidl and it never costs me more than £30, and I still meal plan so we waste very little as a result. We don't waste money on crappy takeout food.
• I save money on the G&E by keeping the heating off as much as possible, only putting the washing machine/dishwasher on when absolutely full and remembering to switch things off.
• I only shop in sales so even though we have really nice things, they never cost as much as a lot of people probably think. DD has started school wearing mostly Debenhams uniform (final clearance mega sale rail of last years stock. I didn't pay more than £2.20 for each of her pinafores, trousers or cardigans).

I managed to put £800 into savings last month. I've now taken to logging onto my internet banking just to stare at my ISA account as a result Suffice to say I feel bloody proud of myself!

Vinotime: You have the right idea! I was brought up by my mum (from age 8) and I remember her saving and cutting back here and there.

I like the sound of the Debenhams uniform sale. When do they do that? Is it after the schools have gone back?

I must look into Netflix. We pay for Lovefilm (£5.99 a month) AND Sky (£65 including phone/broadband). We only have the kids channels but they hardly watch them. Who do you have for broadband/phone?

Keep up the savings. You have done really well!

Vinotime. You should hop over to the monthly 'frugal' thread. You would be in very good company It's in the credit crunch section.

Our disposable income is very high, but we try to find the balance between affording what we want, and still being cost effective. 10 years ago we had nothing, having money was liberating and we probably were somewhat frivolous (no debt though). Now we are finding the balance rather better.

no idea as a family. I have about ??370 disposable income each month. 3 dc's plus a dsd. dh is on a 0-hour contract so his income varies each month. but we each pay 50% of the household bills so he has to earn x-amount and after that whatever he earns is his own.
it all seems to disappear quite quickly though x

Probably around ??4-5k month between two adults. It used to be about ??40 total for me a few years ago so although I splurge on some items i'm still very controlled on others

round about £370 after food. me, dh and 6dc. It doesn't go far!! hence I end up doing as much extra work as i can!

An eye opener of a thread at how much disposable income some people have. I shouldn't read these threads, they make me feel shit. However it did inspire me to trawl through the bank account last night a write down what everything has been spent on to see if we can do better. Can't do much re bills and travel but a lot seems to be wasted on the weekly household budget somewhere ....

£40 disposable income a month. That's all.
We don't have any debt but we don't have any savings either.

Roughly £1400
We are a family of six, two DDs aged six and two, two DSs aged nine and three, myself and DF.

After rent, bills, fuel, food, baby essential etc, we have to be very careful with what we have left over which is usually between £300 and £400. £100 of that gets split between 2 savings accounts, and the rest is spent on frugal treats. Must admit we have made a few changes to make sure what we have left over goes further - for example, we've stopped buying coffee from high street chains, and I've stopped being a snob about where I buy baby clothes from

Live in the north and bring home between me and DH 4 grand a month after tax. We have sod all disposable. 2 kids, 2 cars. Mortgage is £950 pm and we have old credit card debts we are still carrying.

We only live in a 3 bed semi but played the housing market all wrong and should have moved earlier.

We get along ok but 70 grand a year should make me feel rich but we're not!

Lagoon we bring home about the same and have similar mortgage and 2 (cheap) cars but have £900+ per month disposable income... Only difference is we only have 1 (preschool age) DC and live in expensive part of South.

Please tell me kid no.2 isn't what has made it so expensive!!

OP - we have about £900 per month, although some of that does go on petrol, cheap mobile phone tariffs and food too (lunches, and any meals out or takeaways). We try to save £200-300 of it per month.

I have about £2000. DP don't know. About the same I think. Our finances are separate.

I have about £150 & DP has about £500 - this will change as I'm about to go on Maternity leave and we will both have about £150 each

Not very much as we are on a DMP - so any spare money is used to pay for activities for the kids as they really don't get to do very much